What a battle this was between the oil giant clubs. Manchester City come back from being down 3-1 to draw against Newcastle in dramatic fashion.
The days of just being able to come to Saint James’ Park and thrash Newcastle United appear to be over as the Geordies nearly upset the reigning champions of England. I don’t know if Man City wasn’t expecting such fight from Newcastle, or they did but couldn’t react properly as Newcastle was all over Manchester City during large portions of this game.
Nevertheless, it was actually Man City who scored first as Bernando Silva dribbled past a few Newcastle defender to float a ball into the box that somehow found Ilkay Gundogan. And, without any hesitation, the midfielder easily dispatched the shot passed Nick Pope to give Man City the lead only five minutes into the game.
Now, I know Manchester City is stacked with their midfield and attacking option but losing Bernado Silva to Barcelona (where he’s been heavily linked to all summer long) would be a massive blow to this team. His low center of gravity and phenomenal dribbling skills have been crucial to City’s seamless links between midfield and attack over the six years he’s been at the club.
Moreover, he’s more than capable of playing every single position across the forward and midfield lines, which is a rarity among players today. I cannot stress how important Silva is to this City attack (especially when Kevin De Bruyne is injured), and that City must keep him for one more season if they hope to go far in all their competitions.
Anyway, usually when Pep’s Manchester City score first, the game is theirs to lose. Especially when they score first with only five minutes gone from the game. There must be hundreds of teams now that have given up once they face the destructive powers of Manchester City’s updated tiki-taka football.
Yet, Newcastle didn’t join that list today as they fought back against City’s domination.
Led by Allan Saint-Maximin, Miguel Almiron, and Callum Wilson, Newcastle’s attack relentless drove at City’s injury-battered defensive line. Even before Newcastle actually did score their first goal, the Geordies easily could have had three or four. Man City’s defense really had no answer for them.
But, like I said, that equalizing goal did eventually came from Miguel Almiron’s thigh. Yeah, the much-maligned Paraguayan forward kneed-in (if that’s how you can even describe his strike) a Saint-Maximin cross to put Newcastle level.
I guarantee you this goal will go down as one of Almiron’s favorites for his career as not only because it came against the reigning Premier Leage Champions, but also due to the fact that Jack Grealish was sitting on the City bench when it happened.
“What does Jack Grealish have to do with this?” someone may be asking. Well, I’ll tell you.
During City’s obnoxious 2021/22 title winning celebrations, Jack Grealish, in his infinite wisdom, thought it’d be a great idea to make fun of his teammates by calling them as bad as a certain Miguel Almiron. Just super funny, right.
Now, flash forward three months later, Grealish’s overpriced behind is sitting on City’s bench watching Almiron whirling away to celebrate an equalizing goal against City.
Ah, irony at its best.
Nevertheless, Newcastle didn’t just stop there as Saint-Maximin clearly wanted to showcase his superior dribbling skills to Pep and the City hierarchy. The French winger was unstoppable today as he burned Kyle Walker time after time after time again.
I have to say that I was skeptical of Saint-Maxime’s potential in years past as his finishing product was shaky, but he has seemingly addressed the issue.
He assisted the first goal, assisted the second goal, and was the man fouled on Newcastle third free kick goal. He was easily the man of the match today, and it wasn’t even close.
As I mentioned, Newcastle poured on the pressure and scored two more against the champions, a great Callum Wilson strike for the second and a brilliant Kieran Trippier free kick for the third. After that goal, I honestly thought this game was going to finish as a 4-1 or 5-1 Newcastle rout.
But these City players have the hearts of a champion and roared right back.
Only six minutes after Trippier’s strike, Erling Haaland bundled a goal over the line (well, more like blasts a goal over the line) to get City right back into the game. And only three minutes after that, the one and only, Bernado Silva, scored a beautiful dink shot right past Martin Dúbravka to tie the game at 3-3.
Before I move on, I just have to say that Kevin De Bruyne assist was actually magical. I don’t know how he saw the pass as he had to get it through three Newcastle defenders (and had to nutmeg one too) just to reach Silva, who buried it with ease.
With 20 minutes to go, City looked like they would snatch the game from Newcastle and break the Georgie’s hearts. Yet, even though Gundogan and Haaland nearly added to their tallies in the 70′ and 77′, respectively, the Citizens couldn’t break down Newcastle’s’ backline as the game finished 3-3.
This really was the game of the weekend (though that could change with Liverpool vs. United tomorrow) and was a joy to watch. Clearly, Newcastle can no longer be viewed as a relegation-level team as they have too good a roster for the drop. They should easily finish in the top half of the table if they keep putting in performances like this.
As for Manchester City, this draw really doesn’t hurt them too much. Though, they’re now two points behind Arsenal for 1st place in the Premier League, yet I don’t see them having trouble overcoming the Gunners.
Who they should fear is Liverpool as, if the Reds beat Manchester United tomorrow, then they’ll only be two points behind City. We’ll have to wait and see if Liverpool can close the early gap.
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